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A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl

41–50 of 106 posts

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit of artistic license, but the trees play a crucial role. They are Ahuejotes, and they keep together the plots of farmland called Chinampas. You can see some of this today in Xochimilco. We don't know if that was what it was like in Tenochtitlan, but it is likely. What adds to this is the fact that the houses are all one story, so the trees look taller and more numerous than they are.

In the same vein, many of today's boulevards and highways line up with old streets in your renders, is that a historical coincidence or is the Mexico City layout a direct result of Tenochtitlan remains despite its destruction?

It's not a coincidence. The conquistadors spent months in Tenochtitlan as guests of Montezuma and wrote extensively about how amazing the urban planning was. They would have preferred to keep the city in tact all things considered.

Since the Aztecs had done all of the hard work of figuring how to build out drainage and stability with the chinampas, the Spaniards built their new buildings on top of the foundations remaining from the Aztec buildings. It then took several centuries to fill in all of the canals and turn them into streets so the layout of Mexico City very much reflects Tenochtitlan.

For example the Zócalo square is right where the Aztec ceremonial center used to be and I believe the Metropolitan Cathedral was originally built on top of the foundations of a minor temple that was built as part of the Templo Mayor complex.

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#42
post #39

Hey all, author here! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. The question I always get from tech people - yes, all open source software. 90% Blender, 9% Gimp, 1% Darktable or so.

Text mentions smoked peppers, but there is no smoke rising from the city. Was that too hard or distracting or both? Might smoke be added in the future as an addenda? Inspiring as is to be sure, but for sake of realism it struck me as off since the rest is so detailed and eye catching.

This image shows smoke rising from the temples:

https://tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl/image_dest/newfire_twopea...

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#43

This is fantastic. One thought that came to my mind is: would mosquito borne diseases have been a problem in city surrounded by so much water?

Mosquito borne disease didn’t exist in the Americas prior to contact, both the viruses and species that transmit them come from the old world.

Cortes landed at Veracruz the next year, in 1519.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Acuna-So...

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#44

This is fantastic. I'm curious what the sources are. I know there are some maps, books written by Spanish conquistadors, and so on. How much do we know about the city beyond the sites of significant historical events?

A surprising amount! They were mostly pictorial but the Aztecs and their vassal cities were very meticulous about keeping government records of all kinds and even though almost all of Tenochtitlan's documents were destroyed during the battle, some of them were backed up in other cities. Since the conquistadors spent some time in the city as guests of Montezuma, we've also got first hand accounts from the soldiers and friars.

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#45
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the same vein, many of today's boulevards and highways line up with old streets in your renders, is that a historical coincidence or is the Mexico City layout a direct result of Tenochtitlan remains despite its destruction?

I know in The Netherlands this happened in the city I grew up, Hoogeveen [0]. > In the second half of the 1960s, Hoogeveen was the fastest growing town in the Netherlands. Until that period, the town contained a number of canals, which had been dug in the area's early days when it was a prime source of peat and maritime transportation was a necessity for efficient transportation of cargo. By the 1960s the rise of the…

This is also true in New Orleans.

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#46

How did the ancient city deal with sewage and waste?

Tenochtitlan had a sophisticated system of urban planning with zoned public bathrooms (latrines, really) that were cleaned at night by a large labor force dedicated to keeping the city clean. The waste was collected by canoe from these bathrooms and dumped into the canal system where it decomposed and was later dredged up to fertilize and replenish the topsoil on the chinampas. Fresh drinking water was provided by mountain spring connected to the city by several aqueducts built in the 15th century.

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#47

Great stuff, it looks incredibly well rendered! I'm surprised the original city centre square was preserved, but all the original pyramids were knocked down, was it really worth the effort just to get those stones?

A nice illustration of how the ubiquity of cheap fossil-based transport and manufacturing has completely skewed our perception.

Of course it's easier to pick stones from a convenient pile that's already where you need it, even if it perhaps requires some banging at them to get them loose. Most convenient quarry on the continent, likely the exact reason why you started building in the vicinity in the first place.

But I'm certainly not immune to perception through those petrol-colored sunglasses myself, please don't read this as "look at that fool!"

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#48

Hey all, author here! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. The question I always get from tech people - yes, all open source software. 90% Blender, 9% Gimp, 1% Darktable or so.

Has there been any attempt to recreate the daily wood/charcoal smoke released from that all that ?

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible work! Since you've made this in 3D, I wonder if that could potentially enable a more immersive way to get more out of the work you've put in than just static images? Would it be possible to do a sort of flyover video with the assets you've created? Or potentially even plop the assets into a game engine and let people interactively explore?

The area is huge, to a point where you have to worry about floating-point imprecision. The sheer amount of stuff in the scene is pretty crazy. Perhaps I can bake it down to something like what you might see in Google Earth in 3D.

How did you fill it with buildings? I imagine they’re not all unique?

Re: A Dutch graphic artist reconstructed Tenochtitlan in 3D

#50

This is fantastic. One thought that came to my mind is: would mosquito borne diseases have been a problem in city surrounded by so much water?

I don't know much about that, but one of the districts was called "Moyotlan", or "place of the mosquitos" or "place of the gnats".

Interesting, thank you. I wonder if that that area had stagnant water, allowing mosquito growth.
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